President Donald Trump has taken the lead in the key battleground states of North Carolina and Georgia, two new polls have revealed.
Duel polling published Wednesday shows Trump moving ahead of Democrat President Joe Biden in the critical Southern states.
In the head-to-head general election rematch, Trump is favored 51% to 47% against Biden among registered voters in Georgia.
In North Carolina, the Marist surveys found that Trump leads Biden 51% to 48%.
Both polls also found Trump making inroads among independents, black Americans, and young voters aged 18-to-29 compared to 2020 exit polling.
Biden is leading Trump by only one point among independents in Georgia.
Meanwhile, the 45th president is ahead by six points in North Carolina, according to the surveys.
In 2020, Biden “won” over the group by nine points in Georgia and four points in North Carolina.
“North Carolina has been a battleground state for several presidential election cycles and remains so in 2024,” Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement.
“Both Biden and Trump have secured their base.
“The tale of the tape will be who commands independent voters and voters who dislike both presidential candidates.”
Trump has a five-point advantage among those aged 18-to-29 in Georgia, the polls found.
He is down by only one point in North Carolina.
Biden “beat” Trump by 13 points in Georgia and 17 points in North Carolina with these youth voters last cycle.
Black voters broke for Biden 75% to 24% in Georgia, as well as 79% to 20% in North Carolina.
In 2020, Biden won the demographic 88% to 11% in Georgia, as well as 92% to 7% in North Carolina.
With independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. included on the ballot, Trump’s lead grew by one point in Georgia and remained the same in North Carolina, according to the polls.
Kennedy received 14% support in Georgia and 11% of the share in North Carolina.
RFK Jr. is now nearing ballot access in Georgia.
Trump won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020.
However, Trump only beat Biden by 1.3 points last cycle.
The 45th president “lost” Georgia to Biden by less than one point in 2020 after winning the state in his first election.
Both Trump and Biden became their respective parties’ presumptive nominees on March 12 when they surpassed the necessary delegate thresholds with nominating contests in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington, and Hawaii.
Trump is currently leading Biden by 5.5 points in the RealClearPolitics average for Georgia‘s election.
He is also ahead by five points in North Carolina’s average.
Nationally, Trump is ahead by 2.1 points and has already led in more than 100 polls this cycle.
However, as past election cycles have proved, polling can be meaningless when election fraud is rampant.
The Marist polls surveyed 1,177 registered voters in Georgia and 1,197 in North Carolina between March 11 and March 14.
The surveys had margins of error of plus or minus 3.7% in Georgia and 3.6% in North Carolina.
